The stability of astrophysical jets

Abstract

Jets are produced by young stellar objects (YSOs), by black hole binary star system "microquasars" (μQSOs), by active galactic nuclei (AGN), are associated with neutron stars and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), and are thought responsible for the gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). An understanding of these outflows must include how they are launched and collimated into jets, and how they propagate to large distances. Jets be they Poynting flux and/or kinetic flux dominated are current driven (CD) and/or Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) velocity shear driven unstable. Here I present some of the work that is leading to a better understanding of the properties required for the observed relative stability of astrophysical jets. © International Astronomical Union 2011.